1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the muscle exercise and strengthening art and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for providing progressive hand grip strengthening.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The benefits of progressive, resistive weight increases in the exercise of various muscles is well known. That is, in exercising particular muscles or muscle groups to provide increased muscle size and, thus, increased muscle strength, an exercise is selected for exercising that muscle group, termed target muscles, by performing the exercise on a particular exercise equipment or apparatus. The exerciser selects multiple, periodic exercise sessions for each targeted muscles. In each session, the exerciser performs a preselected number of repetitions of the exercise a predetermined number of times of sets of the repetitions. Thus, for example, the number of repetitions of a particular exercise may be eight to twelve and the number of sets of these repetitions may be eight to twelve and the number of these eight to twelve repetitions may be three, though greater of fewer repetitions and/or sets may be selected as desired. In each repetition, the targeted are exercised in an isotonic mode. That is, the muscles are moved in a particular path with the movement of the body part to which the target muscles are attached. As the strength of the target muscles is increased, the resistance weight is periodically increased to provide to the desired increase in size and strength. In performing those exercises in which the hands of the exerciser are used to grasp the exercise equipment, such as a dumbbell or a bar bell, or a handle connected to a resistance weight of an exercise equipment, such as in various cable exercise equipments, pull up bars, or other various exercise equipments or apparatuses, the hands of the exerciser are placed on the selected equipment and/or the handle used on the exercise equipment in usually one of two main grip positions. These two grip positions are termed the “C” grip, in which the tip of the thumb of the hand is in opposed relationship to the tips of the fingers such that, depending on the size of the object being gripped, the profile of the hand is in the form of the letter “C”. In the “C” grip, the opposed thumb and the base of the palm form the gripping action therebetween. The other of the two basic grip positions is termed the “Monkey Grip”. In the Monkey Grip, the thumb is opened up from the “C” position and is aligned along a portion of the side of the index finger. Gripping action of the hand is provided mainly between the fingers and the palm of the hand. In either type of grip, during the performance of the exercise, the muscles of the hand and/or associated wrist and forearm muscles do not move relative to any body part. Such resistance movement is termed an isometric exercise. Such exercise of muscles in the isometric mode has been done heretofore for the target muscles, but the desired increase in muscle size and strength has not, in general, resulted from such limited isometric exercising.
Consequently, in performing the desired exercise in which the hand is utilized to provide the grip to the exercise equipment, while the targeted muscles are exercised in an isotonic mode, the grip muscles are exercised in an isometric mode.
Various types of exercise for the hand/grip muscles have heretofore been proposed. Such grip muscle exercising was done by having the hand squeeze a resilient object such as a sponge ball, spring loaded squeeze devices or the like. While such exercising of the grip muscles has had limited success in increasing the grip strength of the grip muscles, it has not been able to provide the large increase in grip strength at all position of the hand that is often desired.
It is known that as the fingers of the hand are gradually closed from the fully extended position wherein the fingers are aligned with and substantially co-planar with the palm, to a closed position, in which the hand is in a fist, in either the “C” grip or the “Monkey Grip”, the grip generally becomes stronger until, as a first is made, the grip strength is at its strongest. Conversely, as the fingers are opened up from a first position to the fully extended position, the grip becomes less strong until the fingers are nearly completely opened wherein the grip is at the weakest. At the fully extended position there is no grip strength since there is, by definition, no opposed members to provide a grip.
Thus, there has long been a need for both a structure or apparatus that may be utilized to exercise and develop the muscles in the forearm, hand and wrist so that the strength of the grip at any degree of the fingers being opened is increased as well as a program using the apparatus so as to provide progressive increases in the grip strength.
Grip strength at various degrees of openness of the hand is important in many sport activities. For example, in many martial arts, the gripping of an opponent's garment during a bout wherein the type of garment, the amount of garment grasped, and like factors, dictate the degree of openness of the hand, is part of the sport. Similarly, the use of the hands in defense in football and other sports often requires grasping with various degrees of openness of the hand. In many other activities wherein the degree of openness is fixed during the activity such as the grasping of a fishing pole, a pole vault pole, a tennis racquet, a baseball bat or a golf club, and in many throwing activities, such as throwing a football, a baseball, a javelin or the like, the grip strength at the required hand position is important for accuracy and control and it is desired to have the maximum strength of the grip at that hand position. Grip strength is also important in rope climbing and can be life saving in activities such as mountain climbing. Grip strength is also important in many more mundane activities such opening jars, grasping tools such as a hammer or screw driver, or the like.
It has been found that gripping, for example a cylindrical or other hand graspable geometric cross sectioned device by the hands, such a horizontal bar, as in performing a pull-up exercise, the body weight is fixed and generally cannot be increased over time. The targeted muscles for the pull-up are, in general, the upper back muscles, which muscles are increased in strength over time by increasing the number of repetitions and the number of sets performed. The hand is usually in a “C” grip position, though a “Monkey Grip” position may also be used, in a pull-up. The diameter of the horizontal bar is fixed so that the hands are in a fixed position of gripping and thus not exercised in an isotonic mode but in an isometric mode in the pull-up exercise. Such relationship of the isotonic exercising of the targeted muscle group and the isometric exercising of the grip muscles is standard for other exercises wherein the gripped handle or equipment is a fixed dimension. The grip strength of the hand is only strengthened for the one position of the hand due to the isometric exercising thereof.
Since there are a large number of targeted muscles to be exercised, the time required to exercise all of the targeted muscles increases as muscle specific exercises are developed which is a disadvantage due to the increased time required to exercise properly all the desired targeted muscles.
Thus, there has long been a need for an exercise device or apparatus and method of use thereof that will allow exercising the hand grip muscles while at the same time exercising the targeted muscle group so that such exercises are accomplished without increased exercising time. Further, such exercise device should be capable of being attachable either fixedly or removably to be used as handles on more conventional exercise equipments such as dumbbells, bar bells, the cables of cable machines, T-Bar machines and the like of the type found in many health clubs and gymnasiums.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand and which exercise device may be utilized on a wide variety of other exercise equipments and machines.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved set of exercise devices for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand and which exercise devices may be utilized on a wide variety of other exercise equipments or machines and which exercise devices may be provided in a plurality of various sizes.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved set of exercise devices for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase the grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand and which set of exercise devices may be sequentially utilized in a preselected order on a wide variety of other exercise devices.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand and which exercise device may be utilized on a wide variety of other exercise devices and wherein the grip strength of the hand is increased simultaneously with the increase of the strength of the targeted muscle for the particular exercise being performed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to increase grip strength at any degree of openness of the hand while performing a preselected exercise on a preselected exercise equipment to exercise a targeted muscle group and during the performance of the preselected exercise the targeted muscles are exercised in an isotonic mode and the hand muscles are exercised in an isometric mode.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and program for utilizing an exercise device for exercising the grip muscles of the hand to provide a progressive increase in the grip strength of the hand at any degree of openness of the hand over a time period of such use.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and program for sequentially utilizing one or a pair of a plurality of exercise devices of progressively larger exercise devices which may be attached to an exercise equipment or machine for performing a preselected exercise and in the performance of the preselected exercise simultaneously exercising preselected target muscles in an isotonic mode and exercising the grip muscles of the hand in an isometric mode to provide a progressive increase in the grip strength of the hand at any degree of openness of the hand over a time period of such use.